HλLF-LIFE - THE NOVELIZλTION
by Nintendex
Summary: An onward-progressing story of the events of Gordon Freeman's journey from the Resonance Cascade to the surface to save his fellow scientist pals from certain destruction. Rated T for violence and graphical themes.


**Anomalous Materials**

'_Now arriving at Sector C Test Labs. Please stand back from the automated door, and wait for the security officer to verify your identity. Thank you, and have a very safe and productive day.'_

_SUBJECT:_

_Gordon Freeman_

_Male, Age 27_

_EDUCATION:_

_Ph.D., MIT, Theoretical Physics_

_POSITION:_

_Research Associate_

_ASSIGNMENT: _

_Anomalous Materials Laboratory_

_CLEARANCE:_

_Level 3_

_ADMINISTRATIVE SPONSOR:_

_Classified_

_DISASTER RESPONSE PRIORITY:_

_Discretionary_

The automated tram came to a halt at Sector C bay.

'Morning Mr. Freeman,'

The cold metal door slid open as the blue-suited security guard ushered 27-year-old, MIT graduate, Gordon Freeman out onto the catwalk, his shoes clanking on the metal grate. He rubbed the mist out of his piercing green eyes and sighed. Monday morning; ready to work.

'looks like you're running late.'

Gordon checked his watch; 8:47am. Crap, he _was_ late. He adjusted his thick-rimmed glasses and followed the guard over to the large metal door. 'Hey, you haven't seen Barney around here, have you?' asked the guard. 'I haven't seen him for days; I guess his bar tab must've finally caught up with him.' Gordon pretended to laugh at another of his stupid jokes, as always.

A series of electronic beeps came from the control panel as the guard tapped the three-digit code to open the door. A sound confirmed it as pistons and metal pipes reeled back which allowed the door the open. The guard folded his arms. 'Good to see ya again, Freeman. Hope you have a better day than mine.' he said with a yawn. Gordon smoothed back his chestnut brown hair as he stepped into the opened corridor.

The familiar Sector C lab was just as it was since Gordon signed up for his job as a theoretical physicist. Clean white walls, uptight suits and lab coats strutting around, trying to look busy. Gordon had spent so much time here he could call Black Mesa his home. 'Hey, Mr. Freeman,' said the security guard at the front desk. 'I had a bunch of messages for you, but we had a system crash, I dunno, twenty minutes ago and I'm still trying to find my files.'

Odd. System crashes were a blue moon in Black Mesa, and they only ever happened when a small rodent gets caught in the wiring system or something like that. But that wasn't it, this was something more. 'They were having a few problems down at the test chamber, but I think that's all straightened out. They told me to make sure you get into your Hazard Suit right away.' and with that the guard looked over at his computer screen, tapping at the keyboard frantically to try and get it started again. 'Do you think Solitaire is using too much RAM?' a frizzy haired scientist suggested.

Monday was Gordon's favourite day, despite other scientists having to record important information on tests, Gordon would don his Hazard Suit and he himself would place the test samples into the Anti-Mass Spectrometer. Other scientists would scoff at him, strutting around in black and bright orange, wishing that they hadn't failed Physical Education.

As Gordon walked down the steel corridors, the scientists he passed seemed more cheerful than usual, almost happy. This was peculiar since the staff were as grumpy as could be, especially on the morning of a big test. He passed by a window, then he stopped and walked backwards. Inside the room was a scientist in deep conversation with a tall, thin man in a blue suit which Gordon had never seen before. Was he new to Black Mesa? No, they weren't hiring at the moment... He tried as hard as he could to listen in on them but the glass was six inches thick and sound proof. The mysterious man turned his head towards Gordon and took a good, long look at him.

His face was bony and wrinkled and didn't look quite like a normal person's face should look. Gordon was getting unsettled just looking at him. The man straightened his tie, and the very next second, the scientist activated the blinds, now Gordon couldn't see anything as they covered the window. Perhaps the man was the health inspector or maybe some kind of government official. Whoever he was, he looked important. With that, Gordon resumed his journey down the corridors to the change rooms, where he would collect his Hazard Suit. As he passed by the kitchen area, Gordon realised how hungry he actually was, so he thought he's stop by for a snack.

'Mornin' champ,' greeted a guard, sipping his cup of coffee as Gordon entered, his shoes clicking on the marble checkerboard floor. 'Hello.' said a scientist sitting at a table with a newspaper in his hands. Peering into a shiny microwave on the cupboards, Gordon saw a nicely prepared casserole just begging to be eaten. Making sure no one was looking, he tapped the control buttons to heat up the tasty meal and a metallic whirring confirmed the input. An explosion of metal and hot meat fragments splattered across the kitchen and collected in a sticky mess across the walls and floor. 'My God, what are you doing?' exclaimed the scientist with the newspaper, now getting up from his seat. 'Jesus H. Christ, man.' said the guard, peering into the shredded remains of the microwave, then he chuckled. 'That was Dr. Magnusson's lunch, Freeman, now you better make like an atom and split before he finds out.' Gordon looked very embarrassed with his hands in his lab coat pockets. 'We will never hear the end of this.' the scientist said with a sigh, getting a paper towel from the table.

As soon as Gordon was out of sight he ran as fast as possible to the change rooms. If anyone else found out about this he would've been the laughing stock of the whole facility. It wouldn't matter anyway; Black Mesa could buy ten thousand more microwaves and still have more money left over for a new kitchen. The metal door slid open and Gordon walked into the bathroom with a grin on his face. He had waited a whole week for this, and now it was time. He walked over to a control deck on the left side of the change rooms where his black and bright orange Hazard Suit stood ominously in its glass cabinet. Pushing a big red button on the console, the glass panel slid open and Gordon happily stepped down the stairs to meet up with it.

It was just as beautiful as it always was; a radiation-resistant suit of glistening orange armour. It felt cool on Gordon's skin as he slipped into it and his boots clacked on the hard concrete floor as he strapped them on. He heard the familiar computerized female voice emitting from the suit's onboard computer, telling him about the suit's life functions, morphine injectors, and so on. Gordon found it quite comfortable as it was just his size; it was almost as if the suit was a part of him, seeing as he wore it ever since his graduation at MIT. Though Gordon was at full health himself, his suit was on empty charge, making it powerless to the harmful radiation bathing the Sector C test chamber. He placed his hand over the metal plate of the rusting charger on the wall, specifically designed to charge the Hazardous Environment Suit. After a close inspection, Gordon noticed it was empty. Strange, there weren't any other test chamber experiments going on in the facility, well, none which Gordon knew of. Black Mesa kept too many secrets from their employees; far too many.

Wrenching open his locker door with a rustic squeal, Gordon was met by prized pieces of Freeman history: Gordon's MIT graduate diploma, his first test beaker from trade school and a framed photo of his beloved baby nephew. Gordon sighed a happy, nostalgic sigh as he knelt down to pick up his spare vile of suit energy; a capsule of bright blue liquid. It wasn't much, but it would do. While injecting the liquid into his suit with a hissing noise, Gordon overheard a scientist in the bathroom complaining to himself.

'Why do we all have to wear these ridiculous ties?'

A streak of black and orange sped through the Sector C corridors as Gordon power walked through the facility to get his energy going. He heard the guard from the newly cleaned kitchen call out.

'Lookin' good, Freemeister!'

Gordon was about to call back when he came to a halt at the test lab checkpoint. A security guard with a stern look on his face stood broadly in front of the slide doors, and then he smiled.

'Good to see you, Gordon. I'll let you through now.' He walked over to the wall beside him and bowed his head into the retinal scanner. Several beeps and lights emitted from the machine as the glass doors slid open. 'Looks like you're in the barrel today.' the guard said with a snicker. Stepping into the elevator just ahead, Gordon tapped the button to make his descent into the test chamber. The lift lurched downwards with a sudden drop which startled it's occupant with a thud. Lights shining from below the elevator started to glow red, making it feel like Gordon was plummeting straight into hell.

Several angry conversations could be heard from the equipment rooms as machines began to spark and make strange noises. Many scientists were yelling about mechanical failures, high radiation levels, something about boosting the equipment power... It was all a massive rush of information that Gordon guessed was important.

'If one more thing goes wrong with our equipment, I'm going to explode!' a scientist yelled in anguished as he smashed his keyboard with his fists.

Gordon was looking forward to seeing Dr. Kleiner and Dr. Vance again, they were good as friends just as they were at theoretical physics. Stepping into the test chamber control room, Gordon was greeted by Dr. Isaac Kliener and two other disgruntled scientists. 'Ah, there you are Gordon!' said Isaac with a cheerful smile. This was what Gordon liked about him; he was always in a happy mood, even in his darkest moments. 'Nice of you to finally join us, Doctor.' muttered another scientist wearing glasses. Isaac ignored him and continued. 'We've just sent the sample down to the test chamber.' The third scientist got up from his chair and grabbed a clipboard from the console. 'We've boosted the Anti-Mass Spectrometer to one hundred and five percent. Bit of a gamble, but we needed the extra resolution.' One hundred and five percent? Sector C had never raised their equipment power this high for an experiment. Where on Earth did Black Mesa get such a sample?

Isaac spoke again. 'The administrator is very concerned that we get a conclusive analysis of today's sample. I gather he went to some lengths to get it.' Gordon thought of his boss: Dr. Wallace Breen; a prestigious suit that never actually did any science work, despite him being the ruler of an entire facility. He demanded orderly work every day and didn't want to hear anything about it.

The scientist with glasses folded his arms. 'They're waiting for you Gordon, in the test chamber.' he slurred. Isaac straightened his spectacles. 'Quite right, come on, Gordon, I'll walk you down.' he walked over to the glass slide door as the other scientists slumped back into their chairs, tapping at the console. Isaac leaned over, placing his eyes into the retinal scanner on the wall. The familiar beeps and lights confirmed the input as the door slid open, with Isaac gesturing Gordon to enter first.

'Eli has been busy making last minute preparations for the experiment.' Isaac explained as the two scientists walked down the corridor. They walked into a large room filled with rows of computer equipment and three large tubes with bright lights shining in them. Gordon wasn't exactly sure what they did, but he guessed it had something to do with the experiment, so he left them alone. At last, the dark skinned Eli Vance popped around the corner to meet up with the MIT graduates.

'Greetings, Eli!' Isaac called with a friendly wave. 'Morning, Izzy.' replied Eli, who was always tired on Monday mornings. He turned to Gordon, looking him up and down in his Hazard Suit. 'Gordon, good morning, I'm glad you're here. These last minute changes, they're a bit strange to just -' a computer console just to the side of Eli suddenly exploded with smoke and sparks flying. 'Oh!' exclaimed Eli, running over to the damaged machine. 'It's about to go critical!' Gordon and Isaac ran over to join Eli to see what the damage was. He pushed a button, turned a dial, flicked a switch... everything seemed to be okay for the time being. Isaac scratched his bald spot. 'What in the blazes is going on with our equipment?' With all the machines in Sector C set to full throttle, something was bound to go wrong. Eli panted with his hands on his knees. 'It was... never meant to do this in the first place.' he said with a sigh. 'It's nothing we can't handle, Eli.' said Isaac. 'Run along, Gordon. We'll be but a moment.'

The sheer sight of this incident put Gordon off of his good mood. Equipment failures, machines exploding out of nowhere; this was all heading straight for disaster. Gordon walked over to the cylindrical elevator jutting out of the wall and held his finger over the button. Taking one last look at his colleges, he tapped the button and with a sudden lurch, descended into the final floor of his destination. 'This could take a bit longer than I anticipated.' Gordon overheard Isaac saying. As the elevator doors opened, a scientist just in front of him scanned his eyes over a live feed of the test chamber on the wall. 'By Becquerel's ghost!' he cried. 'The radiation levels are off the charts!' Yet another problem, just what Gordon asked for. At least it was radiation, the HEV suit would take care of that.

A helmet wearing security guard sitting at a desk looked up from his computer monitor. 'Oh, there you are, Gordon.' he greeted. 'Everybody's been lookin' for ya, hombr_é_.' he pushed a green button on his desk and a large metal door labelled "TEST LAB C-33/a" vertically slid open. As it did, a security camera high on the wall swivelled over and seemed to focus on Gordon. Was someone watching him? It all seemed very strange, but he decided to put it out of his mind and get back to work. He took a deep breath and stepped into the newly opened room.

Two scientists, one with slicked black hair and another with elderly wrinkles, put down what they were doing and turned to face Gordon. The black haired scientist spoke first. 'I'm afraid we'll be deviating a bit from standard analysis procedure today, Gordon.' he said with a hint of disappointment in his voice. 'Yes, yes, but with good reason.' the elder scientist assured. 'This is a rare opportunity for us. This is the purest sample we've seen yet.'

So _that's_ the cause of all this commotion.

'And, potentially, the most unstable.' he replied.

'Now, now, as long as we follow standard insertion procedures, everything will be fine.'

'I don't know how you could say that, although, I will admit that the possibility of a resonance cascade scenario is extremely unlikely, I just can't -'

'Gordon doesn't need to hear all this; he's a highly trained professional.' the elder scientist cut in. 'We've assured the administrator that nothing will go wrong.' he lingered on the last word, as if he was being sarcastic. Gordon didn't know why, but he guessed he was about to find out.

'Yes... you're right. Gordon, we have complete confidence in you.'

'Well, go ahead. Let's let him in now.'

The two scientists walked over to either side of the room and leaned over the retinal scanners on the walls. Access beeps sounded on either side of Gordon as the massive door in front of him reeled upwards. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and stepped into the test chamber.

The colossal Anti-Mass Spectrometer stood ominously in the centre of the enormous, rustic-orange test chamber. Three large mechanical arms extended from a circular rotary base. Attached to the ceiling was a stationary laser beam embedded in steel construction. Gordon didn't even have time to think about the sample when a deafeningly high pitched squeal amplified throughout the chamber. The squeal then gradually turned into a human voice. 'Testing,' the intercom stated, and then it coughed. 'Everything seems to be in order.' then another voice spoke.

'Alright, Gordon, your suit should keep you comfortable through all this. The sample will be delivered to you in a few moments.' Gordon looked at the empty bars of the cage where the specimen cart should be; nothing yet. 'If you would be so kind as to climb up that ladder and start the rotors, that way we can bring the Anti-Mass Spectrometer to eighty percent and hold it there until the carrier arrives.' Gordon walked over to the opposite end of the test chamber and gripped the red bars of the upward extending ladder. He hauled himself up to the platform where the rotor control console stood. The glass box containing a green button lifted up with a squeak as Gordon made his way over to push it.

A metallic groan came from the Anti-Mass Spectrometer as its mechanical arms began to whirr into motion. They gradually gained speed as they began to spin faster and faster. 'Very good,' said a scientist at the microphone. 'we'll take it from here.'

'Power to Stage One emitters in three... two... one...'

Now the machine jumped to life. A blinding beam of light shot out from the ceiling and intertwined with the mechanism on the floor. Gordon always marvelled at this impressive scenario, even though he'd seen it countless times before. Then the intercom cut in. 'I'm seeing predictable phase arrays.' the scientist proclaimed nonchalantly.

'Stage Two emitters activating... now.'

The laser beam shone even brighter now, bathing the chamber in an orange glow. Gordon had to shield his eyes from the light due to it being so blinding. 'Gordon, we cannot predict how long the system can operate at this level, nor how long the reading will take. Please, work as quickly as you can.'

'Overhead capacitors to one-oh-five percent.'

_Here we go._

'Uh, it's probably not a problem... probably, but I'm showing a small discrepancy in... well, no. It's well within acceptable bounds again; sustaining sequence.'

Gordon didn't feel settled. Something was wrong. Something was horribly wrong.

'I've just been informed that the sample is ready, Gordon. It should be coming up to you at any moment. Look to the delivery system for your specimen.'

As he climbed down the ladder, Gordon peered over at the cage bars at the other end of the chamber. Something shiny and yellow was coming up in a cart as the cage lowered itself; it was a bright, yellow crystal with three jagged points. Strange, it didn't look anything like Gordon had examined before. But he had no time for theories, he had a job to do, and he had to do it quick. He gripped the delivery cart handles and started to push it over to the Anti-Mass Spectrometer.

_Standard insertion for a non-standard specimen._

Everything erupted at once. The exploding machines, the strange green lights, the screaming voices; it all whirled around Gordon in a great big burst of pandemonium.

'It's not shutting down!'

The scientists screamed in agony as they burst into flames, but Gordon knew they were dead, and he would be too, soon enough. Huge chunks of the ceiling broke off and crashed onto the floor, missing Gordon by inches. Bright green electricity shot out of the crystal as it filled the test chamber with a tinted glow. The deafening noises got louder and louder, the chaos increasingly growing.

And then it all went black.


End file.
